Jewish Telegraphic Agencyhttps://www.jta.org
The Global Jewish News SourceWed, 21 Feb 2018 23:30:16 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.2Brandeis gets record $50 million donation to help with financial aidhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/jta/blogs/fundermentalist/~3/CVYYE7zmJwg/brandeis-gets-record-50-million-donation-to-help-with-financial-aid
https://www.jta.org/2017/06/27/news-opinion/united-states/brandeis-gets-record-50-million-donation-to-help-with-financial-aid#respondTue, 27 Jun 2017 20:16:18 +0000https://www.jta.org/?p=1392606(JTA) — Brandeis University has received a $50 million gift — the largest single donation in the suburban Boston school’s 69-year history — to provide financial aid annually for hundreds of students. The gift from the estate of Rosaline and Marcia Cohn announced Tuesday by the university will establish the Jacob and Rosaline Cohn Endowed...]]>

(JTA) — Brandeis University has received a $50 million gift — the largest single donation in the suburban Boston school’s 69-year history — to provide financial aid annually for hundreds of students.

The gift from the estate of Rosaline and Marcia Cohn announced Tuesday by the university will establish the Jacob and Rosaline Cohn Endowed Scholarship and Fellowship Fund, providing assistance to undergraduate and graduate students.

Rosaline and Jacob Cohn, and their daughter Marcia, did not hold any formal connection to the university, but the family had given to Brandeis for decades, beginning with a $100 gift in 1956 from Rosaline and Jacob.

“Like many generous philanthropic families,” Brandeis President Ron Liebowitz said, “the Cohns were inspired by the very idea of Brandeis, a university founded by the Jewish community to be open to all students of talent, reflecting the Jewish values of reverence for academic excellence and dedication to using one’s talents to improve the world.”

Jacob Cohn, who immigrated from Lithuania, established the Continental Coffee Co. in Chicago in 1915. He died in 1968. Rosaline Cohn died in 2010 at 97. Marcia Cohn died in 2015.

Daphne Greenberg, who graduated from Brandeis in 1984, received a Cohn scholarship and now is a distinguished university professor. She was hopeful about the continued support from the Cohn family.

“I used to worry that 18-year-olds today would not be as fortunate as I was,” she said in a statement. “But with this gift from the Cohn family, students like me will continue to be given an opportunity.”

Yearly tuition and other expenses at the school cost about 68,000, according to collegedata.com.

]]>https://www.jta.org/2017/06/27/news-opinion/united-states/brandeis-gets-record-50-million-donation-to-help-with-financial-aid/feed0https://www.jta.org/2017/06/27/news-opinion/united-states/brandeis-gets-record-50-million-donation-to-help-with-financial-aidTrump era prompts Jewish donors to step up giving to liberal causeshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/jta/blogs/fundermentalist/~3/BlbVRR99nxw/trump-era-prompts-jewish-donors-to-step-up-giving-to-liberal-causes
https://www.jta.org/2017/03/21/news-opinion/united-states/trump-era-prompts-jewish-donors-to-step-up-giving-to-liberal-causes#respondTue, 21 Mar 2017 16:08:44 +0000http://www.jta.org/?p=1344250ATLANTA (JTA) — For decades, the Lippman Kanfer family has focused its philanthropy on local Jewish communities and national initiatives to teach Torah — funding causes from the Anshe Sfard Congregation in Akron, Ohio, to a Jewish day school network. But since Nov. 8, Election Day, the family has been talking about another set of...]]>

Jewish Funders Network President Andres Spokoiny speaking at the group’s international conference, March 20, 2017. (JFN)

ATLANTA (JTA) — For decades, the Lippman Kanfer family has focused its philanthropy on local Jewish communities and national initiatives to teach Torah — funding causes from the Anshe Sfard Congregation in Akron, Ohio, to a Jewish day school network.

But since Nov. 8, Election Day, the family has been talking about another set of issues — refugees, voting rights and civic engagement. Like so many other things, its giving has been shaken by the Donald Trump administration.

“When it’s time to step up, we have to step up,” said Marcella Kanfer Rolnick, the founding director of the Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah. “We’re grappling with how much we step up fast, where the urgency requires us to act quickly.”

Trump’s election has pushed the Lippman Kanfer family and other Jewish mega-donors to refocus their giving on domestic causes that reach beyond the Jewish community. The donors, some of whom had already funded liberal causes, cite the country’s political divides, the president’s policies targeting minorities and a proposed federal budget that reduces funding for social services and the arts. But Trump’s support for school choice could also aid funders supporting Jewish day school.

“I don’t think private foundations can make up for draconian social service cuts in the federal budget,” said Susie Gelman, who chairs the center-left Israel Policy Forum and whose family funds programs for Jews in their 20s and 30s. “But I think funders can be strategic and smart, and form partnerships and try to address some of the issues now under threat.”

Discussions of Trump’s election and its fallout have coursed through the Jewish Funders Network International Conference here this week. Several sessions dealt with bridging political divides and promoting civil conversation. Others addressed a perceived spike in anti-Semitism and the increasing need for security at Jewish institutions. On Tuesday, a session on government funding and American Jewry forecast that deep cuts in federal domestic spending could spell trouble for Jewish social service groups.

The funders network’s focus on civil discourse grew during the election campaign. The group, which serves as a resource and hub for Jewish donors and foundations, issued guidelines in August for how philanthropists should conduct themselves. The principles included “Consider and honor diverse viewpoints” and “Fund positive change, not hostility.”

“Funders themselves sometimes use their power from their funding to force ideological positions,” said the network’s president, Andres Spokoiny. “Funders can [instead] fund organizations and people that strengthen civil discourse, that create spaces for dialogue and conversation.”

Rather than make up for lost federal funding, some donors plan to focus on advocacy to prevent government budget cuts. The Nathan Cummings Foundation, which already funds a number of liberal groups — including some Jewish ones — hopes to encourage minority advocacy groups to unite around a common advocacy agenda.

“Philanthropy can’t replace the NEA,” said the foundation’s president, Sharon Alpert, referring to the National Endowment for the Arts. “What philanthropy has always been poised at is creating partnerships with government that demonstrate how important government action and programs are to our lives. We need to engage even more deeply in making that case.”

Mark Reisbaum, who donates to Jewish and LGBT arts initiatives in Northern California’s Bay Area, said he and other donors he knows now plan to donate to politicians who support arts funding.

Marcella Kanfer Rolnick, founding director of the Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, says her family is discussing ways to increase its giving to domestic issues. (Courtesy of Kanfer Rolnick)

“For many funders, the political and public sector environment over the last decade was supportive and inclusive of their vision, so they didn’t feel the need to operate in that sphere,” he said. “In the current environment, they realize they can’t only fund the arts directly. They also have to try to influence the political sector.”

Spokoiny noted that Trump’s policies may also serve Jewish interests, given Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ support for tuition vouchers for private schools. Jewish leaders have long fretted about rising tuition making Jewish day school prohibitively expensive.

“There could be some positive things in terms of funding,” he said. “Day school funding could receive a boost from a government that believes in school choice.”

Even Jewish programs with no political dimension have made adjustments in the Trump era. PJ Library, a program that sends Jewish books to children, has posted guidelines on its Facebook page helping parents broach the topics of anti-Semitism and hate with their children.

“We’re terribly saddened that children’s lives are being disrupted and that parents have to face this issue and be prepared for their children’s questions,” said Winnie Sandler Grinspoon, president of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, which funds the program, referring to the some 150 Jewish community centers and other institutions that have been hit with bomb threats since the start of this year. “But if we’re a trusted source in engaging around parents’ topics, this is a topic we have to address.”

Combating Trump’s agenda may be a boon for organizations seeking to engage younger philanthropists. Michael Littenberg-Brown, 35, president of the Council of Young Jewish Presidents, a consortium of young donors, said his generation is more attracted to groups that provide a Jewish entry point to addressing global injustice, like HIAS, which advocates for refugees, or the Anti-Defamation League, which fights anti-Semitism.

“The burden is to use this moment to help create the space for young funders,” he said. “Young people see themselves as global citizens, and that becomes a very important identity to them in addition to their Jewish identity.”

Donors said that even with the shift to broader issues, parochial Jewish causes may not suffer. Reisbaum said that some of his fellow philanthropists have committed to donating more, corresponding to the spike in the stock market since Trump’s election.

“For some people, that’s tainted money,” he said. “If I have these ill-gotten gains, I want to do more with them.”

]]>https://www.jta.org/2017/03/21/news-opinion/united-states/trump-era-prompts-jewish-donors-to-step-up-giving-to-liberal-causes/feed0https://www.jta.org/2017/03/21/news-opinion/united-states/trump-era-prompts-jewish-donors-to-step-up-giving-to-liberal-causesMinnesota Vikings owner thinks big with new stadium and Holocaust philanthropyhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/jta/blogs/fundermentalist/~3/-StCh_83jFY/minnesota-vikings-owner-thinks-big-with-new-stadium-and-holocaust-philanthropy
https://www.jta.org/2016/09/06/arts-entertainment/minnesota-vikings-owner-thinks-big-with-new-stadium-and-holocaust-philanthropy#respondTue, 06 Sep 2016 22:24:40 +0000http://www.jta.org/?p=1245756MINNEAPOLIS (JTA) – Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer stepped up to an 800-pound gjallarhorn and exhaled with all he had to launch the festivities that officially inaugurated the team’s $1.1 billion stadium. Music lovers would have found the deep, uneven sound revolting, but the Nordic instrument is plenty melodic in inspiring Vikings’ partisans. The...]]>

Mark Wilf, a co-owner of the Minnesota Vikings, at the team’s gigantic Nordic horn in its new $1.1 billion stadium. (Hillel Kuttler)

MINNEAPOLIS (JTA) – Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer stepped up to an 800-pound gjallarhorn and exhaled with all he had to launch the festivities that officially inaugurated the team’s $1.1 billion stadium.

Music lovers would have found the deep, uneven sound revolting, but the Nordic instrument is plenty melodic in inspiring Vikings’ partisans.

The team’s owner, Mark Wilf, 54, offered a Jewish take on the gigantic horn.

“When we first bought the team, a rabbi in St. Paul said, ‘You realize that the horns on the helmet are shofars.’ I kind of chuckle about that sometimes,” Wilf, sitting 50 feet from the newly installed horn, said in an interview with JTA 24 hours before the stadium’s dedication recently.

“It’s something the fans bond around: The Vikings are coming! There’s something – I don’t want to say sacred, but really special — about a football game-day experience.”

Wilf would know. He and his brother Zygi, 66, along with several other relatives, bought the National Football League franchise in 2005 and attend all the games, home and away. The brothers fly in from New Jersey, where they run the family’s real estate business.

And as kids, they attended New York Giants’ games with their father, Joseph, a Holocaust survivor from Poland — as is their mother, Elizabeth, who is in her late 80s. Less than two weeks after the stadium’s dedication, Joseph Wilf, a founder of one of the country’s largest real estate development companies and a major philanthropist, died at 91.

The opening of U.S. Bank Stadium on the site of the Vikings’ former home, the Metrodome, heralds a new era that Wilf hopes will include an NFL championship — a title that has eluded the organization since its founding in 1961.

Led by running back Adrian Peterson and quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, Minnesota won the NFC North division last season and reached the playoffs. The Vikings open the 2016 campaign with a road game before making their regular season debut in the new digs on Sept. 18 against the Green Bay Packers, a division foe.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony in July capped the owners’ prolonged effort to build a new stadium, a process that included contentious negotiations with the state’s governors and legislature. The owners eventually agreed to pay approximately half the construction costs.

“It’s been a long road to get here,” Wilf acknowledged, rattling off some key partners in the project. “There were a host of challenges to get through this, starting with the legislative process. It’s very gratifying to see the final product, and I can’t wait to see the excitement of our fans.”

The massive building is an architectural amalgam. Some of the exterior is darkly foreboding and some airily welcoming, with sections angling out sharply toward the streets and conjuring ships. Indoors, one side of the field and stands is bathed in sunlight thanks to a transparent roof, while the other is shaded. Behind one end zone, five enormous doors up to 90 feet high can hydraulically pivot to bring the outside in. The 66,000 seats are all purple.

Besides the stadium, the Vikings are building a new practice facility in suburban Eagan.

Many analysts had pegged Minnesota for another divisional crown until Bridgewater went down with a knee injury that will sideline him for the season.

Wilf is a hands-on owner, said the team’s general manager, Rick Spielman, noting they speak almost daily. The Wilfs have “never not given us the resources” needed to compete, Spielman said, and “give you the flexibility to do your job.”

“If you’re recommending a view and make a decision based on what you think is best, they support it 100 percent,” he said. “They trust in the people in the specific roles we all have in this organization.”

Wilf recalled the Giants games he attended long ago, when his father’s construction clients included former players.

The outings, he said, “got us exposed to football early on,” and also to maintaining perspective considering their parents’ difficult past.

“My dad, considering what he went through, always had an optimistic bent on things, so whenever we’d be heartbroken as kids about the Giants losing a game, he’d say, ‘Things could be worse – you could be the owners.’”

The football outings, which included a trip to Southern California to watch the Giants’ Super Bowl XXI victory in 1987, were “our family bonding experience,” he said. “Those types of things were special. Now our kids come to the games. It’s a family experience.”

William Daroff, director of the Jewish Federations of North America’s Washington office, credited Wilf with helping to raise $30 million since early 2015 to benefit the organization’s National Holocaust Survivors Initiative, which assists some of the approximately 25 percent of the 120,000 survivors in the United States who live in poverty.

JFNA’s president, Jerry Silverman, said Wilf followed up personally to assure that a fellow philanthropist’s Holocaust-survivor relative received improved medical care.

“These people should live out their lives with dignity,” said Wilf, who recalled the many survivors among his parents’ circle of friends in Hillside, New Jersey.

In Minneapolis, the clan established the Wilf Family Center at the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital. The institution is meaningful, too, to Vikings center John Sullivan, who said his brother Bob once received key medical treatment at another pediatric hospital.

“We have a very common, shared interest,” said Sullivan, who with his wife, Ariel, contributes to the Minnesota institution. “I have a whole lot of respect for [the Wilfs’] philanthropic endeavors.”

The next day, Elizabeth Wilf looked on from a lunch-laden table set atop the field as Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton and other dignitaries spoke. Her sons sandwiched the governor, each grasping a golden scissor to cut a purple ribbon running the stage’s length of about 30 yards. With the ribbon sliced, confetti floated like a sweetly thrown touch pass.

The event was “a great personal milestone for our family, in addition to a great milestone for the community,” Wilf said. “We’re very proud that we have a new home here for the Vikings and that the Vikings have a stability and a future for generations to come.”

(The Minnesota Vikings sponsored the visit to Minneapolis of several journalists, including Hillel Kuttler. Mark Wilf is a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of 70 Faces Media, JTA’s parent organization.)

]]>https://www.jta.org/2016/09/06/arts-entertainment/minnesota-vikings-owner-thinks-big-with-new-stadium-and-holocaust-philanthropy/feed0https://www.jta.org/2016/09/06/arts-entertainment/minnesota-vikings-owner-thinks-big-with-new-stadium-and-holocaust-philanthropyBuyer of Israeli Olympian’s charity name patch is LA philanthropist Shlomo Rechnitzhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/jta/blogs/fundermentalist/~3/6dgcK0kj0Lo/buyer-of-israeli-judokas-charity-name-patch-is-la-philanthropist-shlomo-rechnitz
https://www.jta.org/2016/09/06/top-headlines/buyer-of-israeli-judokas-charity-name-patch-is-la-philanthropist-shlomo-rechnitz#respondTue, 06 Sep 2016 22:22:22 +0000http://www.jta.org/?p=1245880(JTA) — Shlomo Rechnitz, a Los Angeles businessman, has been identified as the person who bought the Olympic name patch of Israeli bronze medalist judoka Yarden Gerbi. Rechnitz paid $52,100 for the autographed patch on eBay, pledging the proceeds to charity. He donated the money from his winning bid to the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center;...]]>

(JTA) — Shlomo Rechnitz, a Los Angeles businessman, has been identified as the person who bought the Olympic name patch of Israeli bronze medalist judoka Yarden Gerbi.

Rechnitz paid $52,100 for the autographed patch on eBay, pledging the proceeds to charity. He donated the money from his winning bid to the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center; it will be used to purchase medical equipment.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for Rechnitz identified him as the buyer. Rechnitz, who operates a chain of California nursing homes, has pledged to re-auction the name patch and donate those proceeds to the Tel Aviv hospital as well.

“Everyone must learn from Yarden how to use their skills to help people in need,” Rechnitz said in a statement.

Rechnitz has gained publicity for other colorful philanthropic acts. In January, he bought 18,000 Powerball lottery tickets for his employees, and one of his workers was briefly duped into believing she had won. Last November, he bought $50 dinners for 400 U.S. soldiers while they were on a stopover in Shannon, Ireland.

Gerbi won her medal in the women’s 63 kg weight class at the Rio games last month.

The grants announced this week benefit youth, teens and young adults in the United States.

Grants include up to $3.2 million for a rabbinic fellowship focusing on innovation and “emergent Jewish communities”; up to $1.5 million for Sefaria, a website offering free online access to hundreds of Hebrew and Aramaic texts, English translations and commentaries, and up to $487,500 for a pilot program developing academic workshops at Israeli universities for faculty and senior administrators of American universities.

“The Foundation is deeply grateful to partner with these innovative grantees committed to Jewish learning,” Al Levitt, president of the Jim Joseph Foundation, said in a statement Tuesday.

Since making its first grants 10 years ago, the foundation has awarded nearly $400 million.

]]>https://www.jta.org/2016/01/05/news-opinion/united-states/jim-joseph-foundation-awards-6-4m-for-jewish-education/feed0https://www.jta.org/2016/01/05/news-opinion/united-states/jim-joseph-foundation-awards-6-4m-for-jewish-educationWeinberg Foundation hires new program directorhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/jta/blogs/fundermentalist/~3/Psj9NnKUGWE/weinberg-foundation-hires-new-program-director
https://www.jta.org/2015/12/09/news-opinion/united-states/weinberg-foundation-hires-new-program-director#respondWed, 09 Dec 2015 17:22:42 +0000http://www.jta.org/?p=1109214Rafi Rone will manage grants to low-income and vulnerable adults in Israel, in addition to communal grants in Baltimore and Israel.]]>(JTA) — The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, one of the largest private foundations in the United States, has hired a new program director to deal with Jewish and Israel issues.

Rafi Rone will manage grants to help low-income and vulnerable adults in Israel, in addition to grants supporting Jewish communal causes, the Baltimore-based foundation announced Wednesday.

The foundation distributed about $200 million to an array of Jewish and Israeli causes over the past three years (including grants to JTA).

Before joining the Weinberg Foundation, Rone was vice president of Jewish and Israel initiatives at the Joseph and Harvey Meyerhoff Family Charitable Funds in Baltimore.

Rone also served a volunteer term on the Governor’s Commission on Middle Eastern American Affairs, and has extensive experience working in the Jewish philanthropic world.

“Rafi brings more than 20 years of experience in community relations and community development to this new position at the foundation,” Rachel Garbow Monroe, the Weinberg Foundation’s president and CEO, said in a news release. “He is a highly regarded professional who has worked with dozens of Jewish organizations and managed millions of dollars in grants to the Jewish community locally and in Israel.”

]]>https://www.jta.org/2015/12/09/news-opinion/united-states/weinberg-foundation-hires-new-program-director/feed0https://www.jta.org/2015/12/09/news-opinion/united-states/weinberg-foundation-hires-new-program-directorJewish billionaire first Brazilian to join Gates and Buffet’s Giving Pledgehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/jta/blogs/fundermentalist/~3/rdL1DMAQLOo/jewish-billionaire-first-brazilian-to-join-gates-and-buffets-giving-pledge
https://www.jta.org/2015/12/01/news-opinion/world/jewish-billionaire-first-brazilian-to-join-gates-and-buffets-giving-pledge#respondTue, 01 Dec 2015 20:08:12 +0000http://www.jta.org/?p=1105402Real estate magnate Elie Horn, who is Orthodox, and his wife have committed to giving away 60 percent of their fortune to charity.]]>RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Brazilian Jewish billionaire Elie Horn has committed to giving away 60 percent of his fortune to charity.

Horn, a real estate magnate, and his wife, Susy, are the first Brazilians to join the Giving Pledge, an effort started in 2010 by philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett to encourage more of the world’s affluent to give away at least half of their wealth to charitable causes.

The donation was announced Tuesday in the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.

Horn, founder of the home builder Cyrela, is an Orthodox Jew and a low-profile businessman whose name has been on the list of Forbes billionaires since 2006. His fortune is estimated at $1.3 billion.

In his letter signing on to the Giving Pledge, Horn said he was inspired by the example of his father, who donated his entire fortune to tzedakah. He said secular and religious education will be the priorities of his giving.

“As human beings, we will carry nothing with us to the other world — the only things we shall take are the good deeds that we accomplish in this world,” Horn told the audience at the recent Brazilian Philanthropists Forum edition in Sao Paulo. “Doing what’s good is a great investment. That’s so obvious, I don’t understand how people can’t get it.”

Born in Aleppo, Syria, Horn arrived in Brazil when he was 11. He reportedly works 16 hours a day but respects Shabbat — Cyrela does not close any deals from Friday afternoon through Saturday evening.

Horn founded Cyrela Brazil Realty in 1978 and built it into the largest publicly traded developer of high-end residential buildings in Brazil, with activities across South America.

]]>https://www.jta.org/2015/12/01/news-opinion/world/jewish-billionaire-first-brazilian-to-join-gates-and-buffets-giving-pledge/feed0https://www.jta.org/2015/12/01/news-opinion/world/jewish-billionaire-first-brazilian-to-join-gates-and-buffets-giving-pledgeOp-Ed: On #GivingTuesday, time to turn philanthropic thinking on its headhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/jta/blogs/fundermentalist/~3/L0hM5o28t3M/op-ed-on-givingtuesday-time-to-turn-philanthropic-thinking-on-its-head
https://www.jta.org/2015/11/29/news-opinion/opinion/op-ed-on-givingtuesday-time-to-turn-philanthropic-thinking-on-its-head#respondSun, 29 Nov 2015 22:02:00 +0000http://www.jta.org/?p=1104241Build a Jewish philanthropic culture focused on the interests of the giver and the donations will follow, two nonprofit execs write.]]>

(Shuttertock)

NEW YORK (JTA) – Nonprofit organizations are preparing for a new but remarkably successful philanthropy holiday, #GivingTuesday, which this year falls on Dec. 1.

Organizations are busy crafting special campaigns, creating new online giving portals and planning fundraisers for the holiday, which began in 2012 on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving as a kind of counterweight to the consumerism of the holiday shopping season.

Anyone in the nonprofit sector can already anticipate what their email inbox and social media feeds will look like on Tuesday: solicitation after solicitation from dozens if not hundreds of nonprofits.

There’s nothing wrong with fundraising. And there’s certainly nothing wrong with encouraging giving. That’s what drives us every day in our roles leading Natan, a major giving circle in New York, and Amplifier: The Jewish Giving Circle Movement, Natan’s field-building arm.

But giving is also what’s keeping us up at night. We’re worried that something important is getting lost in this giving extravaganza – namely, the very people who are central to its success: the givers.

A recent Chicago Community Trust report shows that donors aren’t giving to the causes they care about, partly because they don’t know how to access the information they need about the issues and organizations they might support. Couple that finding with other reports showing that substantial numbers of donors don’t trust nonprofits or understand the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors very much, and then ask yourself: What is this onslaught of appeals actually accomplishing?

Campaigns like #GivingTuesday may well succeed in bringing in one-off donations, but they prevent sustained giving or deeper support over time. Donors are still left questioning exactly what organizations actually do and how their money is helping.

We need to flip the thinking about giving on its head. We need to focus on building the supply side of the giving equation, and not just on strengthening the capacity of organizations to demand. We need to focus on the giver.

At Natan and Amplifier, together with the dozens of partners we work with inside and outside the Jewish philanthropic sector, we’re seeking to build an ecosystem of empowered philanthropy: inspired, educated and engaged givers.

To accomplish this, we’ve focused on giving circles and the incredible value we think they can deliver. A giving circle is a group of people who pool their charitable donations and decide together how to give them away. It’s a simple yet infinitely customizable model that puts the giver in the driver’s seat. In a giving circle, members determine the values that guide their giving, discover areas that address the change they want to make in the world, and engage in deep discussions about organizations doing the work they believe in.

Giving collectively with friends, family or neighbors adds additional layers of meaning and fun to the experience and enables giving circle members to leverage each other’s money, wisdom, experience and perspectives to make a much greater impact than they might have made alone.

In the end, giving circle members emerge with a deeper knowledge of the causes they care about and the organizations addressing those causes. As research has shown, this leads giving circle members to give more dollars, give more strategically and develop a deeper sense of civic responsibility.

At Natan, we’ve engaged over 200 members in our giving circle and have given away nearly $11 million to more than 180 nonprofits, social entrepreneurs and social businesses. After seeing the transformative impact that Natan was having on its members and grantees over the years, and after hearing identical stories of impact from other giving circles (including venture philanthropy funds, women’s foundations and teen foundations both inside and outside the Jewish community), we created Amplifier to connect giving circles inspired by Jewish values to one another and provide resources that enable anyone to create their own giving circle.

What kinds of transformations happen to people in giving circles? People become enthusiastic about giving regularly and adopt the practice of giving on a regular basis. Time and again, we’ve seen giving circle members become so passionate about organizations they discover during a giving circle’s grant-making process that they join those organizations as volunteer leaders and board members. When you give someone the opportunity to actualize their vision through giving, they become active agents of change in their communities – not passive, one-time donors.

This #GivingTuesday, we need to put the needs and goals of givers first. Foundations and nonprofits alike can be major players in helping to build a broad culture of empowered philanthropy. Invest in building this culture, and the donations will follow. The world’s leaders and change-makers – and ultimately the people our organizations support – depend on it.

(Felicia Herman has been executive director of The Natan Fund since 2005. Joelle Asaro Berman is responsible for overseeing the Amplifier program, a global network of giving circles and Natan’s field-building arm.)

]]>https://www.jta.org/2015/11/29/news-opinion/opinion/op-ed-on-givingtuesday-time-to-turn-philanthropic-thinking-on-its-head/feed0https://www.jta.org/2015/11/29/news-opinion/opinion/op-ed-on-givingtuesday-time-to-turn-philanthropic-thinking-on-its-headN.Y. federation raises $207.8M, up 10% from last yearhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/jta/blogs/fundermentalist/~3/SL5NSet6bnM/n-y-federation-raises-207-8m-up-10-from-last-year
https://www.jta.org/2015/07/13/news-opinion/united-states/n-y-federation-raises-207-8m-up-10-from-last-year#respondMon, 13 Jul 2015 19:58:43 +0000http://www.jta.org/?p=1029451The Jewish federation said it raised the money from nearly 53,000 donors in the fiscal year that ended June 30.]]>NEW YORK (JTA) — UJA-Federation of New York raised $207.8 million in its recently completed fiscal year, nearly a 10 percent increase over last year.

The Jewish federation said it raised the money from nearly 53,000 donors in the fiscal year that ended June 30. Of the $207.8 million raised, $150.8 million came through its annual campaign, while $33.9 million was through planned giving and endowments, and $23.1 million was raised for capital projects and special initiatives.

The new total was $21.8 higher than the previous fiscal year for the largest Jewish federation in the world.

“Over the past year, our community proved its resolve to support those in need — whether displaced persons in Ukraine, children in Sderot [in southern Israel], or agencies in New York that required our assistance and expertise,” the federation’s CEO, Eric Goldstein, said in a news release issued Monday by the organization. “Our community response underscores the vital, unique role UJA-Federation plays as a global safety net, protecting vulnerable populations and providing significant resources to address the most pressing needs, both in crisis and every day.”

Goldstein joined UJA-Federation last July.

UJA-Federation, which works with almost 100 beneficiary agencies and supports causes both locally and overseas, claims to be the world’s largest local philanthropy.

]]>https://www.jta.org/2015/07/13/news-opinion/united-states/n-y-federation-raises-207-8m-up-10-from-last-year/feed0https://www.jta.org/2015/07/13/news-opinion/united-states/n-y-federation-raises-207-8m-up-10-from-last-yearOp-Ed: What billionaires owe the Jewish communityhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/jta/blogs/fundermentalist/~3/LAg9iv_4hF4/op-ed-what-billionaires-owe-the-jewish-community
https://www.jta.org/2015/03/05/news-opinion/opinion/op-ed-what-billionaires-owe-the-jewish-community#respondThu, 05 Mar 2015 20:12:59 +0000http://www.jta.org/?p=966777It’s time for mega-donors to embrace an ethic of accountability by inviting the Jewish community into the decision-making process, the president of the Ruderman Family Foundation writes.]]>

It’s time for mega-donors to embrace a new ethic of accountability to the Jewish community, the president of the Ruderman Family Foundation writes. (Shutterstock)

BOSTON (JTA) — In the past decade, a new class of Jewish mega-givers has emerged, reshaping the Jewish philanthropic landscape.

This has been, without a doubt, a tremendous boon for Jewish life. Super-donors are facilitating the expansion of the Jewish enterprise. With their largesse, more young people are going to Israel, more kids are receiving scholarships for camp, more dollars are flowing to the Jewish state and more seniors are aging with dignity.

But there is a downside to this funding windfall: These donors are essentially setting the agenda of the Jewish world, and no one but them has a say in it. In some communities, a single contributor provides more funding than the rest of the Jewish community combined.

“This is a group of people with remarkable power,” Mark Charendoff, then president of the Jewish Funders Network, said in 2007, when the shift in power first became apparent. “There is virtually no accountability for how they exercise it. They can either be thoughtful or not. They can be strategic or ego driven. No matter what they decide, they have an impact.”

With all the power these donors wield in dictating the direction of Jewish life, don’t they, at the very least, have an obligation to be in an active dialogue with the larger Jewish community about how they might best use their funds? After all, while the donors may foot the bill, everyone else has to live in the world they’ve constructed.

To be sure, the impact of mega-givers is not an entirely new phenomenon. There have always been wealthy, generous people in the Jewish community who have played an outsized role in setting the communal agenda.

But the emerging class has much deeper pockets than the previous generation of givers, is contributing a much higher percentage of the annual budgets of Jewish organizations and, consistent with generational trends in philanthropy, demands a much bigger role in determining how its funds will be used.

An older generation of donors tended to give to big institutions, which they counted on to make good use of their funds. Less trustful of institutions and more keen on making a direct impact, this generation of funders tends to tailor its giving to particular areas of interest and expects an active role in molding the projects it funds.

That’s all well and good as long as the desire of the donor matches the collective priorities of a community. But in some cases the inclinations of donors have essentially become the de facto strategies of the organizations and communities that they fund. When a donor responsible for half the budget of an institution favors a certain program or service, rarely is that Jewish organization in a position to argue.

If the donor is interested in elevating a certain kind of Jewish identity program or in promoting a certain view of Israel or in building a new museum rather than, say, a new school, that donor can often singlehandedly dictate the community’s agenda. Invariably, when a large donor makes a major investment in an area of activity, that investment attracts other dollars and corrals the energy of the entire community. A community that might not have otherwise chosen to build a new museum might all of a sudden find itself completely immersed in a large-scale project, just because one donor thought it was a good idea.

It’s high time the Jewish philanthropic world adopted a new ethic of accountability. I don’t mean accountability in a legal sense. Donors can legally invest in whatever philanthropic purposes they choose. Rather, the big donors should open up the decision-making process and invite the community into the discussion about how they might best use their money.

Just as corporations hold an annual meeting with their stockholders who vote on the direction of the company, mega-donors should treat the larger Jewish community as stakeholders in their communal giving enterprise and factor in their aspirations and priorities. Mega-givers should hold their own annual meetings of stakeholders — the Jewish community — and open the floor for conversation. They should also be transparent in how they use their funds and issue annual reports of their giving.

Such input and transparency would not undercut donors’ ability to make decisions about how they use their money. It’s theirs to spend. It would, however, help the donors stay in sync with the people they are serving, and give the larger Jewish community confidence that it’s part of the process of determining the Jewish future.

As Voltaire said more than two centuries ago, “With great power comes great responsibility.” It’s time for mega-givers to exercise greater responsibility in how they help the Jewish community grow.

Jay Ruderman is president of the Ruderman Family Foundation. Follow him on Twitter @jayruderman